Pictures -- "James Tissot: 'The Life of Christ'"

When Tissot's ambitious new series of watercolors depicting the life of Christ first appeared in the Paris Salon of 1894, men removed their hats. Women kneeled. The pious wept. Some viewers even crawled on the hands and knees like medieval penitents. Now the images that shaped both Hollywood and the modern vision of the Holy Story are on view at the Chrysler Museum of Art March 23-June 5. -- Mark St. John Erickson